Kylie Minogue 05/18/11: Verizon Theater – Dallas, TX

Kylie Minogue finally brought her fabulous self to Dallas’ Verizon Theater this past Wednesday night, ready to show off her new road show to the thousands of gay men (and a few women) who had flocked to the venue.

Only her second trek through America, Kylie’s Aphrodite Live tour is an exercise in pop perfection, with a healthy dose of ancient Greek imagery fitting her latest album Aphrodite thrown in for good measure.

Ms. Minogue kicked off the show with the title track from Aphrodite, rising up from under the Greek parthenon stage. With hundreds of cameras flashing, Kylie appeared, standing inside of a giant clam shell. The song’s pounding bass got the entire crowd dancing, setting the tone for most of the night. With Kylie waltzing down the staircase moving ever closer to the general admission pit, the show got off to a great start.

After running through a beautiful rendition of The One, the insanely danceable Wow and a fiery rendition of Illusion, Kylie’s dancers (now in strange Greek-slave garb) rolled a chariot on stage. Kylie climbed on board and slowly made her way across the stage while performing a slower tempo version of I Believe In You. While she’s never been the greatest singer, Kylie sounded strong, and had no problems hitting the song’s higher notes and impressing the crowd.

A fairly unremarkable version of Cupid Boy was next, followed by a much more entertaining take on Spinning Around which garnered a huge response from the crowd. Now wearing a black dress, Kylie and her backup vocalists danced around the stage smiling ear-to-ear at the guys in the pit. She was positively excited to be there in Dallas, and the crowd ate it up.

Throughout the remainder of the night (and several costume changes), Kylie played most of her major hits and some deeper album cuts. Most of her older material had gone through some major changes. Slow was given a sexy jazz makeover, taking many in the crowd by surprise.

Perhaps Minogue’s most popular song, Can’t Get You Out of My Head went through drastic changes. Leaving behind most of the recognizable synth parts, Kylie’s guitarist took over the lead section and turned the track into what can only be categorized as groove-metal. During the choruses things were a little more standard, but it was nice to see Kylie changing up her songs a bit.

Love At First Sight became a mashup with Can’t Beat The Feeling, perhaps getting the biggest reaction of the night. The two tracks worked incredibly well together but the crowd had a bit of trouble keeping the lyrics straight.

Kylie’s dancers took a break while she did a solo take on Prefab Sprout’s If You Don’t Love Me. She had trouble getting through the track because some in the crowd felt pressured to tell her that they did, in fact love her. She took it like a pro, laughing and trying to get the crowd to calm down.

After a fantastic version of Better the Devil You Know, Kylie took a fan request from a group of guys in the front row and sang a stripped down version of the ultra-gay Your Disco Needs You. She’s typically only been playing snippets of the fan request songs at her shows, but Dallas got the full version of the track. Everyone in the crowd was singing along, but it was a bit strange to hear the track with only a keyboard and drums backing her up.

After a bit of banter with the crowd and a stripped down version of Better Than Today, Kylie’s dancers came back out in full force and ended the main set with Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love). Everyone in the crowd had their hands up, so what does that tell you? As the song came to a close and Kylie disappeared underneath the stage, the crowd immediately started begging for an encore.

Kylie was more than happy to oblige. Rising up on a three tiered platform on top of the stage, Kylie and her dancers powered through the fabulous On a Night Like This before taking on All the Lovers from last year’s album. During this final track, dancers slowly rose from the floor, suspended from the ceiling while still dancing along with the track. As Kylie and her dancers made their way close to the stage one final time, gold confetti rained down covering both the crowd and Kylie herself.

Appearing genuinely happy to have performed for the Dallas crowd, Kylie seemed on the verge of crying during the last round of incredibly loud applause. She thanked Dallas several times, and then the show was over.

For some reason Kylie Minogue has never caught on in America like she has overseas, but for once we get the better deal. She’s brought over her entire show from Europe, making as few changes as possible. While her European tour featured a stage that had water fountains (!!), she has effectively moved an arena (and in some cases, stadium) sized show into much smaller theater sized venues here in the U.S.

As a result, these shows are much more intimate and make the entire audience feel like they are part of the show. This tour is almost over, but the next time Kylie is in America fans of pop need to be sure not to miss this spectacle.

Setlist: Aphrodite, The One, Wow, Illusion, I Believe In You, Cupid Boy, Spinning Around, Get Outta My Way, What Do I Have to Do?, Everything Is Beautiful, Slow, Confide in Me, Can’t Get You Out of My Head, In My Arms, Looking for an Angel, There Must Be an Angel (Playing with My Heart) (Eurythmics cover), Love at First Sight / Can’t Beat the Feeling, If You Don’t Love Me (Prefab Sprout cover), Better the Devil You Know, Your Disco Needs You, Better Than Today, Put Your Hands Up (If You Feel Love), On a Night Like This, All the Lovers

Writer and concert photographer in Oklahoma City. I generally cover rock and pop events in OKC, Tulsa and Dallas.